Police persecuted me, says De Menezes whistleblower

THE whistleblower who leaked information about the shooting of Jean
Charles de Menezes to a television journalist has described how she was
treated as “the worst kind of criminal” by police.

Lana Vandenberghe
- I would do it all again'

Lana Vandenberghe, who worked for the Independent Police Complaints
Commission, said that ten officers broke down her front door in a dawn
raid. She was placed in a cell without food or access to a lawyer for
eight hours by bullying officers who told her that she would go to prison.

Despite the ordeal, Ms Vandenberghe, who lost her home, her job as an
administration secretary and was treated for depression after being
arrested, said that she would do it all again to expose the deliberate
police “cover up”. Ms Vandenberghe, 44, leaked details from the IPCC
inquiry into the fatal shooting of Mr de Menezes, 27, at Stockwell Tube
station in South London on the day after the July 21 bombings. The
information contradicted the Metropolitan Police’s initial version of
events. It had said that the Brazilian had vaulted the station ticket
barrier and run down an escalator to escape firearms officers who were
following him. Officers said that he was wearing a bulky coat that could
have concealed explosives. But evidence collated by Ms Vandenberghe for
the IPCC revealed that he was wearing a light denim jacket and had walked
calmly into the station, picked up a free newspaper and then walked down
the escalator.

After he boarded a train, officers shot him seven times in the head.

Ms Vandenberghe said, in an interview to be broadcast on ITV News tonight,
that she leaked the evidence in August to show that the police were
“lying”.

She was arrested on September 21. “I was scared to death,” she
said. “It never crossed my mind that I would be treated as if I was a
criminal for telling the truth. Unlike the police, I hadn’t killed an
innocent person.”

The IPCC is due to present its report in the summer.

Ian
Blair - give us a break

Mon
May 8 2006 - ITV News

The
secretary who leaked details of the Jean Charles de Menezes inquiry
believes she did the right thing despite it changing her life forever.

The
leak led to ITV News reporting details from the inquiry which appeared to
contradict much of what had previously been believed about the shooting at
Stockwell Tube station in south London last year.

Lana
Vandenberghe, risked everything to bring the truth of the shooting to the
world, and when police realised it was her they wasted no time. She
said: "There was a lot of banging, they did break through a door.
There must have been ten officers involved, they forced their way in.
"I was not expecting it at all, I was terrified."

After
she was arrested, she was left in a jail cell after having her DNA and
fingerprints taken. She said: "I was treated like the worst
kind of criminal.

"I
was left in the cell, my greatest fear was that I would never be let
free".

It
was announced on Friday that Ms Vandenberghe, a former secretary at the
Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), will not face criminal
charges following a police investigation.

The
revelations led to claims of a cover-up and to calls from the de Menezes
family for Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair to resign. Ms
Vandenberghe said: "When I first saw that story on the news that
night, I though 'Oh my god, what have I done!'"

However,
despite losing her home, her job and being treated for depression after
being arrested, she said that she would do it all again to expose the
deliberate police "cover up".

On
the shooting itself, she said: "I do not blame the officers involved
for the shooting at all, they were under orders from a certain commander [Cressida
Dick].

"She
was in charge that day and she should have to answer for what
happened."

Brazilian
electrician Jean Charles de Menezes

The
Times - January 30 2006 - Stewart Tendler

Police tampered with log on dead Brazilian 'suspect'

UNDERCOVER detectives altered a surveillance log to avoid blame for the
death of Jean Charles de Menezes in a bungled counter-terrorist operation,
according to police watchdogs.

The disclosure, in a report by the Independent Police Complaints
Commission, puts fresh pressure on Sir Ian Blair, the Commissioner of the
Metropolitan Police, and his officers over the shooting.

Mr de Menezes, 27, was shot seven times in the head by a firearms team on
a train at Stockwell Underground station on July 22 last year as police
hunted for terrorists who had tried to attack the London transport system
the day before. Police sources say that the report, which is being studied by the Crown
Prosecution Service, shows that a Special Branch logbook describing Mr de
Menezes’s last movements had been altered to hide that he had wrongly
been identified as a suspect.

Mr de Menezes was shadowed by a Special Branch team as he headed to
Stockwell station. They believed that they were following a deadly
attacker and radioed another officer with reports on what was happening.
He kept a log. One of the team identified Mr de Menezes as the terrorist suspect. This
was noted, although the IPCC also found that elsewhere in the log there
were “degrees of doubt” raised by the team.

The log was changed at a debriefing meeting at 8pm that night, about
ten hours after the shooting. Police were still saying that Mr de Menezes
might have terrorist links. The log originally said that there was a positive identification but
the word “not” was then added. None of the radio traffic during the
operation was recorded, which meant that blame for the events leading to
Mr de Menezes’s death could have fallen on the commanders and
controllers rather than the team.

Jean Charles de Menezes
- London Underground

The IPCC team is said to have been alerted by a whistle-blower. A
scientific technique for checking changes in documents showed the change
that had been made. The team has denied changing the log. Later that night the Anti- Terrorist Branch SO13 finally cleared Mr de
Menezes but the IPCC found that the Commissioner was not told until
10.30am the next morning, more than 24 hours after the death. The delay
will raise more questions about the handling of the operation and its
tragic conclusion and why Sir Ian was left in ignorance for so long.

The report is said to make uncomfortable reading for police, drawing
attention to a string of errors. There are questions not only about
identification but also communications, what orders were issued and by
whom, and who did what.

Mr de Menezes’s family last night called for Sir Ian to reconsider
his position in light of the disclosure. “It seems that Sir Ian Blair was not aware of any of this information
for quite a while following Jean’s death, which does raise certain
questions about how in touch he was with the operation,” Asad Rehman, a
spokesman for the family, said. “Sir Ian Blair is ultimately responsible
for the safety of people in London and this country. It seems he didn’t
have his eye on the ball.”

Ten officers have been named in the IPCC report as facing possible
charges. They include a senior officer, a middle-ranking officer and
junior officers involved in the operation.

The most senior is Commander Cressida Dick, the officer empowered to
order officers to open fire under the rules of Operation Kratos, a special
set of rules for dealing with the threat from suicide bombers. She denies
that she gave the key codeword. Yesterday the IPCC refused to comment on the report, which has been
with the CPS for ten days and is now being examined with a file of
evidence by counsel.

Metropolitan
Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair and Brown Envelope

Wrongful
killing whistleblower 'suspended'

August 19, 2005

The
person responsible for the leaking of documents about the police shooting
of Brazilian Jean-Charles De Menezes has been suspended, BBC and Sky news
said.

The
person was not identified but was said to be a member of the Independent
Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating the shooting of De
Menezes on July 22, after he was wrongfully suspected of being a suicide
bomber.

The
commission has neither confirmed nor denied the reports that one of its
members was fired.

The
leaked documents, including witness statements and photographs, suggested
that a series of errors led to the shooting of the 27-year-old Brazilian. He
was shot eight times and killed in a south London subway station one day
after a failed attempt to repeat the London bombings of July 7, in which
56 people including four apparent suicide bombers were killed.

The
leak has led to pressure on the Metropolitan Police, whose chief, Ian
Blair, said yesterday there was no attempt to cover up the killing. The
leaked pictures showed De Menezes was wearing a light denim jacket rather
than a coat big enough to conceal a bomb as suggested in earlier reports,
and that he was not behaving suspiciously, as Scotland Yard had earlier
implied.

Pictures
showed him entering the subway calmly, picking up a free newspaper and
catching a train normally. It also emerged that the Metropolitan Police
"initially resisted" what should have been an automatic referral
to the complaints commission.

The
commission (IPCC) was launched in April last year as a "fiercely
independent" new body to investigate complaints against the police in
Britain. It has its own team of investigators.

Pressure
groups had long complained that under the former system, allegations
against police officers were investigated by other police officers
belonging to the Police Complaints Authority. The commissioners are public
appointees who, by law, must not have a police background.

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Sir
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